JUUL Labs launches e-cigarette in Korea

JUUL Labs Chief Product Officer James Monsees, center, speaks at a press conference to launch JUUL in Korea, in Seongsu-dong, Seoul, Wednesday. Left is the company's Chief Technology Officer Adam Bowen. Yonhap

By Kwak Yeon-soo

• Published May 22, 2019 5:10 PM KST
• Updated May 22, 2019 8:22 PM KST

By Kwak Yeon-soo

JUUL Labs, the best-selling e-cigarette maker in the United States, has come to Korea with the aim of bringing disruptive change in the cigarette industry, according to company officials Wednesday.

After JUUL, which corners about 70 percent of the U.S. e-cigarette market, announced its debut in Korea, KT&G said it will launch a new heat-not-burn cigarette called “lil vapor” on May 27, just three days after the launch of JUUL, to stir up competition.

The co-founders of JUUL Labs, Chief Technology Officer Adam Bowen and Chief Product Officer James Monsees, said their journey took off in graduate school when they worked together on a product design master's thesis at Stanford University in 2005.

“I was always interested in designing for social change, and the fact we were longtime smokers made us think about the impact cigarettes have,” Bowen said during an interview with The Korea Times at the Four Seasons Hotel in Seoul, Tuesday. “We later realized it would be compelling to help smokers at large.”

According to JUUL, there are nearly 1 billion smokers and 50 percent of them are in Asia. Of the Asian smoking population, half are in China and the remainder are spread out across the rest of Asia.

In 2015, JUUL was spun out of Pax Labs, a vaping company previously known as Ploom, as a result of a progression of research and development, innovation and funding.

“We always knew this was a big opportunity from a public health and economic perspective,” Bowen said.

When asked why they have chosen Korea as the first Asian nation to enter the market, Monsees said: “Korea is a very progressive Asian nation. There's a lot of technological advancement and openness to alternative solutions.”

He noted that Korea is the 10th country to sell JUUL apart from the U.S. and there are about 9 million smokers (about 20 percent of the entire population) in Korea.

The product system consists of a mouthpiece, a charging dock that resembles a USB drive and a cartridge the flavoring.

In Korea, the device will be in two colors ― silver and slate ― and for the pods, five flavors ― classic, fresh, tropical, delight and crisp ― will be available.

The device kit, which costs 39,000 won ($32), as well as refill packages (9,000 won per two) and a charging dock (5,900 won), will be available in convenience stores GS25 and 7-Eleven and duty free stores of Lotte and Shilla.

Regarding the negative impact JUUL may have on teenagers, the company promised prudent control with its products and retail channels.

The company said it is not going to advertise on social media or sell devices online although it is allowed.

“Youth prevention is an important issue. We will never achieve the long-term mission if we don't do a good job preventing underage consumers,” Bowen said.

When asked if brand loyalty would discourage smokers from trying JUUL products, the co-founders said that the importance is to give a better product experience that is rewarding and successful.

JUUL products will have under 10 milligrams per milliliter of nicotine due to the Ministry of Environment's strict guidelines.

“In Korea, people prefer ultra-light, ultra-low cigarettes, so that will be very compelling. But we do have products of higher concentration elsewhere,” Bowen said.

The co-founders said it is not nicotine but the cigarette that is dangerous in general. Every year, cigarettes cause about 15 trillion won of expense to manage the healthcare of smokers.

“Our ultimate mission is to eliminate the harm of cigarettes globally and switch from combustible to e-cigarettes,” Monsees said.